The summer arrives and fruit purchases increase in many homes. It is a refreshing food, which helps tackle the high temperatures typical of this time of the year. Many types of fruit are suitable to fulfil this task, but some of the most appreciated and consumed are stone fruits, such as peaches, nectarines, paraguayos, cherries and plums, among others, even though they are not going through their best time in La Rioja.
Besides cherries, peaches are undoubtedly the most popular crop in the region, according to data from the Statistical Service of the Department of Agriculture of the Government of La Rioja. This remains true in spite of the fact that the fruit has lost a lot of ground in the autonomous community. In fact, in 2003 there were 1,016 hectares planted in La Rioja, and in 2015 that figure had been reduced to 434 hectares. This decline, of course, has also been reflected in the production volume, which has dropped from the 22,711 tonnes harvested in 2003 to the just over 10,000 tonnes obtained two years ago.
Igor Fonseca, coordinator of the technical services of ARAG-ASAJA, acknowledges that stone fruits in general have experienced a severe crisis in the region over the past decade. "We have gone from being a thriving production area to losing a lot of acreage," he affirms. This opinion is shared by the Cooperativa de Albelda. "There is a trend towards disappearance," he explains. "A lot of people, in fact, have decided to stop betting on this product to grow a different one, like pears," he adds. In any case, Fonseca believes that there has been a bit of a slowdown in this conversion process in recent years. "There are two reasons for this: on the one hand, the impact of fire blight, and on the other, the strong competition in the pear sector," he explains. "However, pears have a very important advantage compared to stone fruit, which is their capacity to be stored and marketed when the prices paid reach their best levels," he concludes.
Another issue affecting the stone fruit sector is that of contracts. "Although they are required by law, the truth is that most producers do not make use of them," laments Igor Fonseca.
The problem of not having those contracts is mainly the lack of security, since you are dealing with perishable products, so you face the risk of them spoiling and becoming worthless. Thus, practices such as open price sales have become common over the years, although many are fighting against this in order to improve the situation of the producers.
Looking at all-time statistics, the importance of other stone fruits in La Rioja has traditionally been much smaller than that of peaches. For instance, in 2015, the region produced just 121 hectares of apricots, while the plum production reached 1,868 tonnes.
Adverse weather
As for the campaign this year, the prospects are not too rosy, although it is still early to offer a full forecast. In the case of plums, hail is the culprit. "In La Rioja there are two main producing areas, one is Nalda and the other is Cidacos, and the latter recorded a major hailstorm on 8 June that caused severe damages to the harvest," laments Fonseca. "Now we have to wait and see how the insurers will respond," he adds.
For the rest of the products, as explained by sources from the Cooperativa de Albelda, the high temperatures have also taken a negative toll on their development. "Stone fruit needs water and this year there has not been enough," he explains. "There has been some production, but the problem is that the fruits have reached very small calibres," he notes. "The prospects were positive, but hail has also caused many problems," states Igor Fonseca, who is also not optimistic about prices. "We have to take into account that we are a late region with respect to others and that the prices recorded so far have not been very good," he points out. In spite of all this, stone fruits continue to be the fruit of choice for the summer.
Source: larioja.com
